Fair warning or a head's up, however you want to interpret it, this is gonna be a long answer so if you don't wanna read it you can stop here.
You have been warned.
Don't try to think about it in terms of toxicity try to think about it in terms of purpose and second understand that every generation receives the previous generations debts and understanding. The 60's generation had the purpose of changing the country rapidly aka revolution, they took examples from Soviet Union (out of nowhere they b/me the country with the largest manufacturing base), China (ended a 200 years of western domination), Vietnam (a tiny country fighting off and winning against the great imperialist, the USA) and other African and Asian liberation movements that ended hundred years of colonialism, oppression, exploit etc. Keep in mind that they were the 1st gen to be mass educated in the country...literally the 1st ones. Before them it was the 50's kids, and they were sent to the America & European countries...Some stayed there, the ones that returned started to work and try to change the country whilst under the emperor (think of the people that participated in the Tahisas girgir) the ones that stayed in America & Europe established the Councils of Ethiopian Students that eventually split to form MEISON & EPRP.
The 60's kids though, were more radical, and the books they read convinced them to never compromise, never negotiate and above all label and think of anybody that doesn't agree with you as a traitor to the cause (even though the cause was the bullshit Marxism-Lenninism). There was a famous group back then called crocodile, they start the political arguments, then won those arguments they started and either killed or reported to the authorities the students that lost those political arguments....all this in the name of the masses and democracy. They were actively supported and encouraged by the Eritrean liberation fronts b/c it was in their best interest to have a weakened internally divided Ethiopian & Ethiopian gov't, they themselves were supported and encouraged by Egypt b/c the emperor's gov't had announced intentions to have a study conducted on the blue nile (notice that the Eritrean Liberation Front was established, trained and armed in Egypt and even announced it's formation in Cairo)...funny enough once the Eritreans got what they wanted they b/me the staunch opposition to the ethic make up of Ethiopian & Ethiopian gov't b/c it was now in their best interest to have a strong and internally united Ethiopian gov't that they can control...but I digress.
The books read by the 60's gen convinced them this was the way (even though it was nearly almost rhetoric and bullshit...seriously the books about Marxism-Leninism and it's achievements are bullshit). But the core concepts of those books are class question & national question. The class question is defined as a struggle against oppression by the few on the mass, the national question is defined as struggle against oppression by one nation on others. They read those and forcibly-super-imposed the European, Russian, America and etc experiences onto our country (never mind that they were completely different, the simplest one being those countries had a 2 or 3 generations of educated people, our people couldn't even read and write...I mean the differences were so visible that you have to blind not to see them). Even the National question was primary aroused by Marx for the Irish people against the British, he didn't want it to spread to the other countries b/c the intention of that question was to weaken the greatest oppressor of that time, the British Empire.
So forcibly-super-imposed preceived oppression of the people by the balabat and landlords (even though there was truth to the matter aka class question) and by the Amhara people against the rest (even though the Amhara people were also being oppressed aka national question) what could go wrong?
Apr 26, 2020